QATAR WORLD CUP SET FOR 48 TEAMS

But they’ll need to find somebody to co-host it!

A48-TEAM World Cup in Qatar and another Gulf state in 2022 moved a step closer last night when football chiefs pushed on with plans to expand the competition earlier than first agreed.

The FIFA Council approved working with Qatar to explore increasing the number of teams at the finals from 32 to 48 and a final decision will be made in June.

A FIFA feasibility study showed the expansion would require at least one other country to host the competition, with Kuwait and Oman suggested as the best options. But Qatar are reluctant to share and, as it stands, they could not share with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, who have all cut off diplomatic relations with them.

The 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, will have 48 teams but FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants to expand the next edition.

He said he believed a 48-team World Cup in 2022 in Qatar was ‘feasible’, adding: ‘If it happens, fantastic. If it doesn’t happen, fantastic also.’

Meanwhile the biggest governing bodies in world football are on collision course after FIFA approved plans for an expanded Club World Cup from June 2021. The move is likely to trigger a heavyweight clash between them and UEFA, with leading European clubs opposed to the idea.

A leaked letter from the powerful European Club Association (ECA) to UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin stated that its clubs would refuse to take part.

The changes to the Club World Cup will involve the introduction of a 24-team competition and Infantino wants Europe to provide eight of them, with six coming from South America, three each from Africa, Asia and North and Central America and one from Oceania. FIFA suggested that each club could earn £50million for taking part.

Infantino added: ‘Now the world will see a real Club World Cup where fans will see the best teams in the world compete to be crowned the real world champions.

‘Club football is evolving at a different pace in different parts of the world and we want to have an exciting, prestigious and inclusive competition, and we’ll have that with this Club World Cup, starting in 2021. We hope that all the best teams will participate and we’ve had some very positive discussions with UEFA.’

Male VAR operators will assist all-female teams of referees and assistants at the Women’s World Cup which starts in France on June 7, as no domestic women’s competitions use the system.